08 Sep Barbados Food and Rum Festival
At the Barbados Food and Rum Festival, there is no shortage of gourmet food and rum to excite your palate. Find out more on why you should be there?
Imagine, delectable dinners, luscious desserts, flowing rum complemented by turquoise water nudging up against silky soft sandy shores. Better yet, glorious sunshine with Vitamin D to energise your body and mind.
Barbados is the melting pot for West Indian cuisine. The flavours of its land have evolved over centuries with European and African influences on the island’s Arawak Indian cooking. What better place to savour authentic Barbadian cuisine, than at the Barbados Food and Rum Festival. It’s an upscale celebration of gastronomic art, featuring international and local celebrity chefs, rum experts and mixologists. Watch local chefs fire up delicious barbeques under the stars, and savour mouth-watering seafood at the historic Oistins fishing village.
Not-to-miss is the Signature Rum Event with food and rum pairings. History suggests rum originated in Barbados. Rum and Bajan culture are deeply intertwined. To get a true taste of the island’s heritage and history, take a sip of rum or savour a piece of the island’s delicious rum cake. Mount Gay Distilleries is the island’s most renowned and oldest rum distiller whose beginning dates back to 1703. Mount Gay rum is considered the world’s finest and oldest existing brand of rum. Barbadian rum adds a distinctive, rich flavour to beverages, and desserts like rum cakes, rum balls and flambé bananas. It’s an excellent marinade for light meat such as, chicken, pork and seafood. A personal suggestion is to try the mature Barbados rums. An old rum is like a single malt; it needs no adornment. Just take a comfortable chair, watch the world go by, and enjoy the caravan of flavours as the rum travels from your lips downwards.
Other events slated for the schedule are: food truck mashu, rum tours, breakfast on the beach, and community pop-ups. Saturday highlights include a game of Polo feted to a selection of world-class cocktails and canapés, and exquisite dinners prepared by celebrity chefs. The festival peaks on the Sunday with an entertaining beach party and food sampling.
As you would expect, the beaches are spectacular. There is quite a lot of history here too, from tours of the capital Bridgetown and the old military area, The Garrison, as well as restored plantation houses. Harrison’s Cave has almost one and a half miles of caverns. There are the botanical gardens and boat and beach parties.